Daddah, Moktar Ould (mookh'tär OOld däd'dä) [key], 1924–2003, president of Mauritania (1961–78). He became premier when Mauritania joined the French Community (1958). Elected president when Mauritania gained independence (1961), he identified the nation with Arab North Africa. Reelected four times, he was overthrown in a coup in 1978 due to the unpopular war against guerrillas in the S Western Sahara, and went into exile in France.
